When people think Jane Goodall, they think about gorillas and primatology, but recently she has been in the media’s lime-light for something else. Seaworld, she stated in a recent interview, should be closed down. The park that so many people have frequented in over the years is, in her opinion, very cruel.

Her main focus is on orcas. Orcas and other similar animals like porpoises and dolphins communicate using a type of communication very similar to sonar. When they try to speak in their tanks, their sound waves just bounce off the side of their tanks leading to a sort of echo chamber that could contribute to some very poor mental health conditions for these orcas.

Seaworld has 22 of the 57 orcas being held in captivity around the world. They were very quick to deny these claims and reassure the public that their orcas are very happy. This, however, does not change many people’s opinions especially after ‘Blackfish’. Blackfish was a documentary that showed the cruelty and neglect that many aquatic animals like orcas and dolphins face in captivity.

After the airing of this CNN documentary in 2013, companies like Seaworld and other similar ones have received very harsh criticism and have seen very low attendance. In fact, over the two years since the documentary was released, Seaworld’s stock has plummeted. This accompanied with an increasingly sullied public opinion of the 56-year old park has lead to growing pressure on their management to consider other options.

Barnum and Bailey’s Circus faced a similar situation with their use of elephants and they were able to compromise with the public. After much criticism, they came to the decision to stop using elephants by 2018.

Jane Goodall’s idea that the park needs to be shut down immediately may be a bit too hopeful, but a compromise is very possible. Either an increase in the size of the tanks that they keep their orcas in or in the implementation of newer walls that would be able to suppress the orca’s sound waves and keep the waves from bouncing around would do a sufficient job of satisfying the portion of the public who is concerned about these orcas.